Scary Nights

Posted on July 13th, 2004 in Adventure.

Last weekend I finally made a trip to Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. I thoroughly enjoyed myself tramping over the patches of snow and was fascinated by the landscape ravaged by a recent volcanic past. You can see a few pictures in the updated gallery.

Anyway, as I lay beneath my homemade quilt I was very attuned to the subtle noises in the dark as usual. I laughed at myself as I kept myself needlessly awake like I always do the first night or two in the wilderness. My imagination turns the tiniest little sound into the most fearsome and hungry-for-hiker fanged beast. Of course these beasts live only in my mind… usually. You see there was this one instance last fall while I hiked The Long Trail…

I’ve noticed that usually nocturnal insects and wildlife really start doing their thing an hour or two after sunset. Chirping and scurrying noises abound to keep a would-be sleeping hiker very occupied indeed. Then, as if the company whistle was blown, almost everything seems to stop at about 2am: dead silence until the pre-dawn early birds get started. On just such a night in southern Vermont is where this story picks up.

It was about 2am when I woke up after maybe 1 hour of sleep. Unfortunately the large bottle of water I thirstily drank before calling it a night decided to call upon me. So up I rose and gingerly crept out into the dead still night with my teeny tiny yellow LED flashlight. The air was so silent that even my ever so careful steps upon leaves sounded as if I were walking on obnoxious cellophane bags of potato chips. Stepping up to the base of a large tree, I proceeded with the task while a sleepy yawn overtook my face. Suddenly, I heard for a split second a shuffling in the branches above me and before I could really tune in, something about the size of a football dropped out of the tree, bounced off my left shoulder, hit the ground, and went scurrying away! In an instant I was completely wide awake and the entire woods seemed to have a million glowing eyes all focused on me. I scanned all around with my pitiful little light, but could see nothing of all the creatures my imagination was conjuring! With heart pounding, I quickly finished my business and sprinted back across the bags of potato chips into the safety of my own sleeping bag. Nothing else happened that night, including any sleep for my assaulted mind!

 

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5 responses

  1. L. Claude says:

    Added on July 14th, 2004 at 7:51 am

    You forgot to mention that you were wearing a matching thermo helmet - did you think that we wouldn’t be able to see that in the dark? Perhaps if you were thus protected, many of those wildlife perturbances would have been muffled as you slumbered peacefully (a scrumptiously vulnerable dish for man-eaters).

  2. WiseFool says:

    Added on July 14th, 2004 at 12:02 pm

    Ahhh yes! I had almost forgotten about the joys of camp life at night. Like the time I went to Boy Scout camp and raccoons climbed in my tent at night. You have inspired me to tell my story of the time I spent the night on the North side of the Grand Canyon. Of course, my writing comes nowhere near the level of Scott’s but I’m sure you can use your imagination…

  3. Katie says:

    Added on July 14th, 2004 at 6:56 pm

    Wow - amazing photos. And a darn good yarn as well! Did you ever figure out exactly what that pouncing football was?

    I’m wondering too about your pack. In your self-portrait (so serious!) you’re wearing a teeny-weeny backpack - is that all you carried? Or was the rest of your gear snapping the photo?

  4. Scott says:

    Added on July 14th, 2004 at 7:12 pm

    Katie: No, I never did see for sure exactly what creature ambushed me. Based upon the size, dropping from a tree, and time of night I assume it was an opposum. But then again all the ‘possums I’ve ever seen move pretty slow. I think I would’ve spotted it before it slipped away???

    As for the backpack, its actually fairly volumous and can hold quite a bit if necessary. However, I did design it to only carry light loads so anything over 25 pounds begins to get rather uncomfortable to carry. (I left out the hipbelt for simplicity and to save weight) I won’t go into detail about light-weight backpacking here, but lets just say that its definately NOT necessary to invest in a lot of heavy and expensive gear to safely enjoy the wilderness. The only people who really benefit from that approach are the gear manufacturers and retailers!

  5. Urban Locust says:

    Added on July 14th, 2004 at 9:03 pm

    Better your left shoulder than any other vulnerable parts of your body. Being the “Urban Locust,” let me share with you what happened once when someone was tinkling in our front “yard” late one night (which is fairly common). Our neighbors who live upstairs and thus have an overhead view, saw this guy and threw a tennis ball at him. The guy made a good point that he couldn’t exactly leave once he began.

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